Shigeko Uppuluri’s life ‘resonated’ with those sharing memories

If you were walking in Oak Ridge's A.K. Bissell Park on June 15, you could hear every few minutes the deep, full, reverberating, booming tone of the International Friendship Bell.

The slowly fading tone, usually audible for about 20 seconds, seemed to have a resonant healing effect on the dozens of people standing around the bell in a “comfort circle.”

The bell was struck by each person who shared a memory of Shigeko Uppuluri, the best-known Japanese resident of Oak Ridge, who died June 8 at the age of 92.

“Resonate” was the word some people used to connect Uppuluri to their memories of her and to the four-ton bronze bell, cast in Japan. Shigeko and her late husband Ram, a native of India, had initiated its creation in time for the city’s 50th anniversary celebration in 1992.

The bell’s sonorous vibrations flowed through the participants there and, in celebrating her life, they shared their emotions about Shigeko and recognized that her presence had a significant emotional effect on each of them and the community and world beyond.

“Every time I’m at the bell I marvel how long it resonates after it is struck,” said Ralph Hutchinson, a Presbyterian minister and long-time leader with the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance. “I pray that Shigeko’s life will resonate in our lives long, long after we’ve been struck by her presence.

“She was unstoppable and irrepressible in her drive to make the world a better and more peaceful place. Several years ago, I was privileged to give her a Peacemaker Award recognizing that peacemaking was a central part of her life.”

In 2016, the Consul-General of Japan presented her with The Foreign Minister’s Commendation Award, recognizing her contributions to the friendship and understanding between Oak Ridge and Japan.

A strong advocate for Japanese-American friendship, she was a founder, active member and past president of the Oak Ridge Sister City Support Organization. She assisted Oak Ridge middle school students and teachers with language and cultural information as they prepared to travel to Naka, Oak Ridge’s sister city, for an exchange program each summer.

The people who spoke remembered her for her unassuming nature, her peaceful spirit, her patience, her excitement about trying something new, and her expression of love, friendliness and joy, often conveyed through a smile or giggle. One person said that “she was gleeful about spending time with children.”

The Rev, Lisa Schwartz, minister of Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church (ORUUC), of which Uppuluri was a member, opened the ceremony by saying, “We are in a circle so that we can remember and honor the life of Shigeko Uppuluri and honor the friendships that she built. Those who knew her were privileged to know her and have contact with her wide-open heart and her curiosity-driven mind.”

The ORUUC minister announced that the church will hold a formal memorial service for Uppuluri on Aug. 5.

'True angel in our community'

Jim Dodson, a member of the Oak Ridge City Council and an art teacher at Jefferson Middle School, said, “For me Shigeko was a true angel in our community. Not just for what’s she done in bringing the International Friendship Bell here, but more importantly what she did in working with all the students in our schools on the Sister City exchange program. I know her as a friend and kind and gentle spirit. She always had a smile. Our community is so much richer for having her be a part of it.”

Her son, Ram Uppuluri Jr., said what gave his mother “the most expression in life was what she found here in the Oak Ridge community. This is where she found the most joy. It wasn’t just in the community; it was in everybody in the community.”

Beth Adler said the Adler family lived next door to the Uppuluri family and that both families shared food at Thanksgiving. She said the Adlers were exposed to the “brilliant ideas the Uppuluris had for making the world a better place. They enriched our lives so much.”

'She was the best giggler'

She added, “I hope you all had a chance to giggle with Shigeko. She was the best giggler!”

Abbie Moore, an ORUUC member, said that a few years ago when she and her husband walked their dogs in Bissell Park, they sometimes spotted Shigeko at the original site of the bell “tending the irises and other flowers in the garden there. She took the time to keep it maintained.”

Moore also recalled that several ORUUC members formed a group devoted to learning how to play the ukulele.

"Shigeko asked to join the group. She played and sang with us with so much joy. She was curious and open to learning something new, and it was so much fun to have her in our group.”

Fred Martinson, a former faculty member at the University of Tennessee, said that Uppuluri helped him after he started an Asian studies program at UT.

"Shigeko was responsible for getting the first grant that got the Japanese language in the classroom,” he said. “She taught Japanese at UT.”

He added that she was a student in his “Loving Kindness” class that he has taught for several years for the Oak Ridge Institute for Continued Learning.

One of Shigeko's colleagues at Oak Ridge National Laboratory recalled that Uppuluri “translated many scientific articles written in Japanese into English for inclusion in an ORNL database – an outstanding contribution.”

John Smith, a teacher at Jefferson Middle School, noted that for 30 years through the Sister City Support Organization, students have traveled abroad in the spirit of friendship between the two sister cities – Oak Ridge and Naka, Japan.

“There are now 30 years of Shigeko spread across the world sharing the spirit of friendship in her memory," he said.

He recalled that last year he and Shigeko took a group of students to a science center.

"At 91 years old, Shigeko was strapped on an apparatus so she could experience zero gravity as if she was walking on the moon,” he said. “Suddenly, she was 10 feet in the air, and we could all hear her lovely chuckle. It was her spirit of excitement that was shared with everyone and that we can all carry in our hearts.”

Scott Jamison, president-elect of the Rotary Club of Oak Ridge, said that he knew Uppuluri through the club.

“I liked her focus on peace, goodness and kindness that will resonate with people who know her,” he said. “One thing that struck me was her excitement when her son Ram was coming to town. I’d shake her hand and she would say with joy, ‘Ramie’s coming.’ That always touched me how much she loved and cared about you, Ram.”

This article originally appeared on Oakridger: Shigeko Uppuluri’s life ‘resonated’ with those sharing memories